老布什就职演说

美国历届总统就职演说（老布什）
Inaugural Address of George Bush
FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1989
Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. President, Vice President Quayle, Senator Mitchell, Speaker Wright, S enator Dole, Congressman Michel, and fellow citizens, neighbors, and friends:
There is a man here who has earned a lasting place in our hearts and in our history. Preside nt Reagan, on behalf of our Nation, I thank you for the wonderful things that you have done for America.
I have just repeated word for word the oath taken by George Washington 200 years ago, and th e Bible on which I placed my hand is the Bible on which he placed his. It is right that the memory of Washington be with us today, not only because this is our Bicentennial Inauguratio n, but because Washington remains the Father of our Country. And he would, I think, be gladd ened by this day; for today is the concrete expression of a stunning fact: our continuity th ese 200 years since our government began.
We meet on democracy's front porch, a good place to talk as neighbors and as friends. For th is is a day when our nation is made whole, when our differences, for a moment, are suspended.
And my first act as President is a prayer. I ask you to bow your heads:
Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank You for Your love. Accept our thanks for the pea ce that yields this day and the shared faith that makes its continuance likely. Make us stro ng to do Your work, willing to heed and hear Your will, and write on our hearts these words: "Use power to help people." For we are given power not to advance our own purposes, nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us to remember it, Lord. Amen.
I come before you and assume the Presidency at a moment rich with promise. We live in a peac eful, prosperous time, but we can make it better. For a new breeze is blowing, and a world r efreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man's heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictato r is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an anc ient, lifeless tree. A new breeze is blowing, and a nation refreshed by freedom stands ready to push on. There is new ground to be broken, and new action to be taken. There are times w hen the future seems thick as a fog; you sit and wait, hoping the mists will lift and reveal the right path. But this is a time when the future seems a door you can walk right through into a room called tomorrow.
Great nations of the world are moving toward democracy through the door to freedom. Men and women of the world move toward free markets through the door to prosperity. The people of th
e world agitate for free expression and free thought through the door to the moral and intel lectual satisfactions that only liberty allows.
We know what works: Freedom works. We know what's right: Freedom is right. We know how to se cure a more just and prosperous life for man on Earth: through free markets, free speech, fr ee elections, and the exercise of free will unhampered by the state.
For the first time in this century, for the first time in perhaps all history, man does not have to invent a system by which to live. We don't have to talk late into the night about wh ich form of government is better. We don't have to wrest justice from the kings. We only hav e to summon it from within ourselves. We must act on what we know. I take as my guide the ho pe of a saint: In crucial things, unity; in important things, diversity; in all things, gene rosity.
America today is a proud, free nation, decent and civil, a place we cannot help but love. We know in our hearts, not loudly and proudly, but as a simple fact, that this country has mea ning beyond what we see, and that our strength is a force for good. But have we changed as a nation even in our time? Are we enthralled with material things, less appreciative of the n obility of work and sacrifice?
My friends, we are not the sum of our possessions. They are not the measure of our lives. In our hearts we know what matters. We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend, a loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood and town better than he fo und it. What do we want the men and women who work with us to say when we are no longer ther e? That we were more driven to succeed than anyone around us? Or that we stopped to ask if a sick child had gotten better, and stayed a moment there to trade a word of friendship?
No President, no government, can teach us to remember what is best in what we are. But if th e man you have chosen to lead this government can help make a difference; if he can celebrat e the quieter, deeper successes that are made not of gold and silk, but of better hearts and finer souls; if he can do these things, then he must.
America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a peopl e have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the Nation and gentler the fac e of the world. My friends, we have work to do. There are the homeless, lost and roaming. Th ere are the children who have nothing, no love, no normalcy. There are those who cannot free themselves of enslavement to whatever addiction--drugs, welfare, the demoralization that ru les the slums. There is crime to be conquered, the rough crime of the streets. There are you ng women to be helped who are about to become mothers of children they can't care for and mi ght not love. They need our care, our guidance, and our education, though we bless them for choosing life.
The old solution, the old way, was to think that public money alone could end these problems. But we have learned that is not so. And in any case, our funds are low. We have a deficit t
o bring down. We have more will than wallet; but will is what we need. We will make the hard choices, looking at what we have and perhaps allocating it differently, making our decision s based on honest need and prudent safety. And then we will do the wisest thing of all: We w ill turn to the only resource we have that in times of need always grows--the goodness and t he courage of the American people.
I am speaking of a new engagement in the lives of others, a new activism, hands-on and invol ved, that gets the job done. We must bring in the generations, harnessing the unused talent of the elderly and the unfocused energy of the young. For not only leadership is passed from generation to generation, but so is stewardship. And the generation born after the Second W orld War has come of age.
I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spr ead like stars throughout the Nation, doing good. We will work hand in hand, encouraging, so metimes leading, sometimes being led, rewarding. We will work on this in the White House, in the Cabinet agencies. I will go to the people and the programs that are the brighter points of light, and I will ask every member of my government to become involved. The old ideas ar e new again because they are not old, they are timeless: duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a patriotism that finds its expression in taking part and pitching in.
We need a new engagement, too, between the Executive and the Congress. The challenges before us will be thrashed out with the House and the Senate. We must bring the Federal budget int o balance. And we must ensure that America stands before the world united, strong, at peace, and fiscally sound. But, of course, things may be difficult. We need compromise; we have ha d dissension. We need harmony; we have had a chorus of discordant voices.
For Congress, too, has changed in our time. There has grown a certain divisiveness. We have seen the hard looks and heard the statements in which not each other's ideas are challenged, but each other's motives. And our great parties have too often been far apart and untrustin g of each other. It has been this way since Vietnam. That war cleaves us still. But, friends, that war began in earnest a quarter of a century ago; and surely the statute of limitations has been reached. This is a fact: The final lesson of Vietnam is that no great nation can l ong afford to be sundered by a memory. A new breeze is blowing, and the old bipartisanship m ust be made new again.
To my friends--and yes, I do mean friends--in the loyal opposition--and yes, I mean loyal: I put out my hand. I am putting out my hand to you, Mr. Speaker. I am putting out my hand to you Mr. Majority Leader. For this is the thing: This is the age of the offered hand. We can' t turn back clocks, and I don't want to. But when our fathers were young, Mr. Speaker, our d ifferences ended at the water's edge. And we don't wish to turn back time, but when our moth ers were young, Mr. Majority Leader, the Congress and the Executive were capable of working together to produce a budget on which this nation could live. Let us negotiate soon and hard. But in the end, let us produce. The American people await action. They didn't send us here to bicker. They ask us to rise above the merely partisan. "In crucial things, unity"--and th is, my friends, is crucial.
To the world, too, we offer new engagement and a renewed vow: We will stay strong to protect the peace. The "offered hand" is a reluctant fist; but once made, strong, and can be used w ith great effect. There are today Americans who are held against their will in foreign lands, and Americans who are unaccounted for. Assistance can be shown here, and will be long remem bered. Good will begets good will. Good faith can be a spiral that endlessly moves on.
Great nations like great men must keep their word. When America says something, America mean s it, whether a treaty or an agreement or a vow made on marble steps. We will always try to speak clearly, for candor is a compliment, but subtlety, too, is good and has its place. Whi le keeping our alliances and friendships around the world strong, ever strong, we will conti nue the new closeness with the Soviet Union, consistent both with our security and with prog ress. One might say that our new relationship in part reflects the triumph of hope and stren gth over experience. But hope is good, and so are strength and vigilance.
Here today are tens of thousands of our citizens who feel the understandable satisfaction of those who have taken part in democracy and seen their hopes fulfilled. But my thoughts have been turning the past few days to those who would be watching at home to an older fellow wh o will throw a salute by himself when the flag goes by, and the women who will tell her sons the words of the battle hymns. I don't mean this to be sentimental. I mean that on days lik e this, we remember that we are all part of a continuum, inescapably connected by the ties t hat bind.
Our children are watching in schools throughout our great land. And to them I say, thank you for watching democracy's big day. For democracy belongs to us all, and freedom is like a be autiful kite that can go higher and higher with the breeze. And to all I say: No matter what your circumstances or where you are, you are part of this day, you are part of the life of our great nation.
A President is neither prince nor pope, and I don't seek a window on men's souls. In fact, I yearn for a greater tolerance, an easy- goingness about each other's attitudes and way of l ife.
There are few clear areas in which we as a society must rise up united and express our intol erance. The most obvious now is drugs. And when that first cocaine was smuggled in on a ship, it may as well have been a deadly bacteria, so much has it hurt the body, the soul of our c ountry. And there is much to be done and to be said, but take my word for it: This scourge w ill stop.
And so, there is much to do; and tomorrow the work begins. I do not mistrust the future; I d o not fear what is ahead. For our problems are large, but our heart is larger. Our challenge s are great, but our will is greater. And if our flaws are endless, God's love is truly boun dless.
Some see leadership as high drama, and the sound of trumpets calling, and sometimes it is th at. But I see history as a book with many pages, and each day we fill a page with acts of ho
pefulness and meaning. The new breeze blows, a page turns, the story unfolds. And so today a chapter begins, a small and stately story of unity, diversity, and generosity--shared, and written, together.
Thank you. God bless you and God bless the United States of America.。